Movie · 1982 · Music, Drama · 1h 35m · R · English
Curator score: 7.2/10 (205.7K ratings)
The memories. The madness. The music... The movie.
Overview
A troubled rock star descends into madness in the midst of his physical and social isolation from everyone.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.2/10
IMDb: 8.0/10
Letterboxd: 4.14/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 73%
Metacritic: 47
TMDB: 7.9/10
Director
Alan Parker
Production
Goldcrest, Tin Blue, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Cast
Bob Geldof, Christine Hargreaves, James Laurenson, Eleanor David, Kevin McKeon, Bob Hoskins, David Bingham, Jenny Wright, Alex McAvoy, Ellis Dale, James Hazeldine, Margery Mason, Robert Bridges, Ray Mort, Michael Ensign, Marie Passarelli, Winston Rose, Joanne Whalley, Nell Campbell, Emma Longfellow
Curator Review
Verdict
A bold, abrasive rock-opera nightmare that turns alienation, fame, and authoritarianism into a feverish audiovisual assault. It’s not a conventional narrative film, but its animation, editing, and conceptual ambition make it a major cult work for viewers who want cinema to feel like a psychological breakdown.
Best for
Pink Floyd fans
viewers who like surreal, symbolic cinema
fans of experimental music films
people drawn to bleak psychological dramas
animation enthusiasts interested in adult, expressionistic work
Skip if
you want a straightforward plot
you dislike intense visual and emotional distress
you prefer naturalistic acting and dialogue
you are not in the mood for a confrontational, often oppressive tone
Overview
Pink Floyd: The Wall is less a movie than a sustained emotional collapse rendered in images, music, and fragments of narrative. Alan Parker treats the source material like a hallucination: live-action scenes, animation, and performance pieces collide to create a portrait of a man sealing himself off from the world and then being consumed by that isolation.
Worth noting
What makes it endure is not clarity but force. The film’s imagery is unforgettable, its transitions are aggressive, and its sense of dread keeps mutating into satire, horror, and grief. Even when it feels deliberately alienating, that alienation is the point.
Bottom line
It will be too much for some viewers, especially anyone expecting a traditional story or a warm emotional payoff. But for audiences open to a confrontational art-rock experience, it’s one of the defining cult films of the 1980s: visually inventive, politically charged, and emotionally scorched.
Top Letterboxd reviews
ashleigh! (5★) · 3838 likes
The only “we live in a society” movie that’s allowed to exist
russman (3★) · 2856 likes
Another Film in the Log
Grant Berridge (4.5★) · 2037 likes
I waited a long time to watch this with the right person. I knew I was going to love it - I've been a massive fan of Pink Floyd for ages - but I wanted to share it with someone who would really get it.
When I mentioned to my wife that I hadn't seen it yet (despite having owned the DVD since long before I met her), she immediately turned off the lights and urged me to put in… more
Can of Coke 79 (4★) · 1961 likes
works insanely well when synced to The Wall by Pink Floyd
Catus (4.5★) · 1645 likes
It’s like The End of Evangelion for people who comment “I was born in the wrong generation” on old rock songs yt videos